As a wholesale distributor of locks, locksmith supplies and door hardware, McDonald Dash stocks more than 12,700 items. The 65 year-old distributor, located in Memphis, Tennessee also stocks key blanks, key machines, alarms, door closers and commercial security items and were ready to improve their inventory planning procedures.

Like many businesses, McDonald Dash planned inventory with spreadsheets & intuition. Achieving balance with an inventory of almost 13,000 items was a daily challenge and often ended in sales promotions to move out excess stock.

After seeing a demonstration of VALOGIX® Inventory Planner at a software conference, Phil McBee, Controller for McDonald Dash knew it would make a big impact on their planning processes as well as on their inventory investment.

“When BTM Solutions, our local software distributor was hosting a SouthWare user conference (McDonald Dash’s ERP solution), I jumped at the opportunity to bring president Jim Thomas to see the Valogix product demonstration,” remarks McBee. “I knew once he saw the ease of use and dramatic impact on our bottom line, he’d be sold; and he was.”

Better Visibility to Stock Leads to Reductions

Tim Beckett, President of BTM Solutions, North American distributor for SouthWare Innovations, Inc. knew Valogix was a good fit for McDonald Dash business goals.

Tim explains, “Accurately planning for 13,000 items is extremely difficult because of the sheer volume of information needed to make good decisions. Even though McDonald Dash was doing an adequate job on their fasting moving items, it just wasn’t possible to monitor and plan for every item.”

“Information on spreadsheets is static so it becomes out of date very quickly. McDonald Dash needed a solution that would very easily and accurately manage all of their items. Valogix gives them information they need at a click of a button so they can make strategic decisions and use the cash they would have spent on inventory to invest in other areas of the business.”

Within a few months of implementing VALOGIX Inventory Planner, Phil noticed big improvements in the stock mix and the time it took to do planning. “What was once a nearly full time job was reduced by several hours a day,” notes McBee.

Big Upfront and Long-Term Benefits

It was only a matter of months before McDonald Dash started to see results of advanced planning and scheduling.

“In a very short time—less than three months—we were able to reduce overstocks and excess inventory by nearly 10%, and planning time has been dramatically reduced,” says McBee. “Freeing up valuable time allows us to work on other areas of the business, like responding to customer inquiries and fulfilling sales orders.”

McDonald Dash anticipates that their first year inventory reduction will reach $150,000, already having reduced their stock value by more than $75,000 in the first six months. Additionally, they use the forecast when placing orders from vendors so they are able to take advantage of promotional and shipping discounts. “We save 10% off our orders when we use the VALOGIX forecast and we are able to move it quickly,” adds McBee.